Grain Free Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Raisin Compote

Have I got the perfect autumn weekend breakfast for you.

Grain free pumpkin pancakes with apple raisin compote. Quite the mouthful, huh? Trust me though, it’s delicious.

But first off, let me again tell you how much I love this time of year. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous – perfect for slightly chilly mornings sharing coffee with The Husband on the balcony, balmy afternoons for strong runs and gym workouts, and crisp evenings for walking around our lake or sharing a glass of wine. Not to mention the smells of pumpkin, apples, and spice and the sounds of leaves crunching under your feet and crowds cheering on the local football team. And tomorrow it will officially be my favorite month out of the whole year!

Oh October, how I love you.

So this past Saturday Kevin (The Husband) and I slept in, enjoyed coffee on the balcony while spending some time reading the Bible for our upcoming discipleship group meeting, and then set out for a three mile run. (The same three mile run that kicks my butt when we run it – mainly due to the uphill mile two.) It occurred to us that if we ran the loop in the opposite direction, although we’d be starting and ending on a slight incline, the majority of the run would be on a decline and therefore would be easier.

Brilliant. We crushed it. I felt really strong the entire run, and Kevin let me keep the pace. We finished in about 29 minutes– which was a solid 9:45ish minute mile pace! Although I have to mention that the whole reason for running on Saturday was to finish three miles regardless of time. Therefore, we didn’t take our phones to map the run, we used Kevin’s watch to eyeball the time. I was expecting to be hurting a lot more – but as I said, I felt great and I couldn’t have been happier with our time! It was a great day and a great workout.

Which leads to an even greater brunch – the aforementioned pumpkin pancakes with apple raisin compote. These pancakes are grain, gluten, dairy and nut free – they consist entirely of unprocessed, whole ingredients – win! There isn’t even any added sugar – the natural sweetness of the apples and raisins, when heated, serves as a great topping for the pancakes – no syrup needed!

Plus, these are ridiculously easy to make. The pancakes consist of only a handful of ingredients – banana, egg, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice and nutmeg. Seriously, that’s it. Now as you might expect, these pancakes don’t get as light and fluffy as pancakes made with flour – these will have a wet consistency and therefore don’t taste the same as regular pancakes but for us, they are a great substitute. The apple compote was even easier – heat some butter in a pan, add the sliced apples, raisins, and cinnamon and cook until the fruit forms and compote – about ten minutes overall. I tend to just stir the apples around in the pan, but if you want to get really fancy you can do this:

mid-flip!

Serve these up with a side of bacon and some fresh coffee and you have a perfect harvest brunch that’s to die for. Trust me.

Grain Free Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Raisin Compote

yield: 10 small pancakes

prep time: 5 minutes

cook time: 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1/2 can pureed pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

1 banana

3 eggs

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

dash of nutmeg (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

In a bowl, mix together all ingredients. Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium high heat and coat with olive or coconut oil. Pour the better onto the griddle in even circles (keeping them smaller to make flipping easier). Heat approximately 2 minute each side or until pancakes are brown and cooked through.

APPLE RAISIN COMPOTE

prep time: 5 minutes

cook time: 10-15 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1 apple, cored and thinly sliced

1/2 cup raisins

cinnamon (to taste)

pumpkin pie spice (optional)

1 tbsp butter

INSTRUCTIONS:

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add apples and cook approximately 3-5 minutes until they begin to soften. Add raisins and cinnamon and continue to cook additional 10 minutes until soft and heated through. Serve over pancakes.

Instead of the apple raisin compote, you could top these pancakes with some homemade crockpot applesauce for an easy alternative. Yum.

On Worry

Oh, how hard it is to remember to do this. The Husband and I have been dealing with our share of anxieties lately, and instead of taking it to God, all too often we let them overwhelm us until the burden is just too heavy. Why do we wait until it’s almost too late to come to God with our worries, our fears, our doubts and our anxieties? Why is it so hard to admit to Him that we need help?

Lord, thank you for being there to take away my worries and my fears. Thank you for loving me enough and caring for me enough that you would take that burden from me. I need you. Forgive me for not trusting enough to immediately lay my burdens down at the altar and give them to you. Take away my anxieties today and every day, and give me your peace. Amen.

Book Review: Sarah’s Key

Sadly, I think the Blogger Book Club that I was so excited to join back in May is no more. I’ve checked the host blogger’s sites each month to no avail – I’m not sure if maybe their sites moved or what, but there has not been a link up for the club since June’s review of The Help. Sad face.

So instead of reading the next book on the list (Bossypants by Tina Fey), I’ve been doing my own thing and reading some books I’ve had on my bookshelf forever. One such book happened to be Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay.

When I first started reading this book (eons ago), I got a few pages in and for whatever reason set it aside because it didn’t hold my interest. Let me tell you – I picked this up again a few weeks ago and absolutely devoured it. Once I started reading, I could not stop.

The book focuses on Julia Jarmond, an American woman living in Paris with her French husband and daughter. She is an American writer and is assigned to write a story about the Vel d’Hiv roundup of Jews in France in 1942 – which leads us to the story of Sarah, a ten-year old girl who is arrested with her parents in the roundup. What we find out in the first few pages is that when they are arrested, Sarah locks her four year old brother in a hidden cupboard in the house and promises to come back to get him, thinking they will be back to the house in a few hours.

During Julia’s research for the story, she stumbles upon Sarah’s story – leading to a long hidden family secret and puts her marriage into the spotlight.

The first two-thirds of the book switches between Julia’s story and Sarah’s story – and we don’t know where Sarah’s story is leading or what will happen. I was absolutely riveted and could not put the book down, engrossed in not only Sarah’s story but Julia’s as well. I found my heart breaking for both characters and lost lots of sleep staying up to read “just one more chapter”.

I do have to say that the end of the book did fall a little flat for me – once we found out about Sarah and the story focused more on Julia, I feel like de Rosnay didn’t know where she wanted to go and the storyline didn’t hold my attention as much,, I was much more engrossed in Sarah’s story. (Plus – Sarah’s ending was not what I was expecting – but it was completely realistic.) That didn’t stop my from reading the entire book in about a week. Plus, it was historical fiction at it’s finest – and centered on a topic that I don’t tend to read much about.

Bottom line: if you haven’t already, (the book was published in 2007) read it!! You won’t regret it.

Other books on my bookshelf:

The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman

Submerged, by Dani Pettrey

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

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